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Talk:The Time of My Life/@comment-5335253-20130617214537
Alot has been made of the racism displayed by the writers of Degrassi as of late, and I feel that I want to offer my two cents. Andrea Lewis, who played the seldom used character Hazel Aden wrote a very seething article about her treatment over the 5 season she was on Degrassi, and while to do certainly agree with certain points she made, the fact is that Neither Sarah Barrable-Tishauer or Aubrey Graham could really complain about the roles they played in the first few season's of Degrassi. For starters, both Jimmy and Liberty came from wealthy families, which is not remotely close to perpetuating a black sterotype, in fact it goes to rebuff the ignorant notion that all black come from "the hood". In addition, they were both presented to the audience and bright, articulate and upstanding individuals. It is understandable that Andrea felt slighted as Hazel, but she could have suffered an even more cruel fate and simply have been written off like Christina Schmidt was. I feel that Andrea is really just making a mountain out of a mole hill. Now we move ahead to present day, clearly the direction of Degrassi has changed since it's inception back in the fall of 2001, and obviously the present day writers do seem minimize black characters more. The sad thing is the main cast features 4 black actors, but with the exception of Mike Dallas, they don't see much screen time at all, nor are their characters even remotely developed. In addition to the previous sentence, Dallas can be seen a walking, talking sterotype. He is the tempermental, athletic, dim whitted black kid, who can't get his life in order and ended up having to repeat 12 grade. In addition he also became a teen father at 14, and is essentially dismissive of other peoples feelings and seems to care only for himself. Now for my Money, this is by far the most racially discriminatory character in the history of the show. On top of that, at least we know Dallas is black and he is presented as such. The fact that Hispanic actor Ricardo Hoyas plays a Russian is beyond insulting, and though Tori Santamaria sounds hispanic, we have never gotten any insight into what her nationality is. Zoe Rivas, the new character has a Hispanic sounding name, but odds are her culture will never be touched on. Facts are simply facts, Degrassi may not purposely set out to minimize it's ethnic characters but they sure as hell don't purposely set out to present them to the audience in a clear and concise manner. I for one am just hoping that the show can find it's way back to what made it a joy to watch in the early days. The diversity and abilty to allow itself to present real life from all angles. If the writers don't find that missing formula soon, Degrassi may as well just change it's name to Gossip Girl Toronto.